The Book of Ahmad [DVD]

Ian Phillips - The Book of Ahmad [DVD]

For more than two decades, Adhemar Ahmad has held court at the corner of 112th Street and Broadway, selling books and playing chess with anyone who sits down. To generations of neighborhood residents, he is a familiar fixture of Morningside Heights, yet few passersby know the remarkable life behind the man at the chessboard. An accomplished painter and writer, Ahmad carries the painful scars of a wrongful conviction while pursuing an artistic life largely outside the traditional art world. Filmed over the course of twenty years, Ian Phillips's remarkable documentary follows Ahmad from his sidewalk bookstand into the imaginative world of his art and writing. His persistence ultimately leads to the publication of Hannibal Barca, an illustrated fable that reimagines the young Carthaginian general on fantastical journeys from planet to planet, blending history, poetry, and Ahmad's vivid artwork into what his publisher describes as both a children's story and a cultural corrective. As long-overdue recognition begins to arrive, Ahmad moves from neighborhood institution to published author and exhibited artist, culminating in a triumphant debut at New York's Outsider Art Fair. An intimate portrait of resilience, creativity, and a singular New York life, THE BOOK OF AHMAD reveals the extraordinary artist who spent decades working in plain sight.